I must have bought one of just about every powered, USB 2.0 hub on the shelf at Fry's and returned them, one by one, because I wasn't happy with them for one reason or another. Besides those criteria, I was looking for a hub that has both the power jack and USB upstream jack on the same surface of the housing, because I hated the ones that are small, but take up a big footprint on your desk because they have plugs sticking out of them on 3 or 4 sides.
While the CP-H720P does not meet this criteria, it uses that fact as an advantage. First, the housing can be mounted vertically in a weighted stand (provided) to minimize footprint. Then, it has USB downstream ports on both a forward and rearward facing edges, so that plugs for long term connections can attach to the back of the hub and the cables route out of the way, and plugs for temporary connections face forward for easy access. Arranged this way, the power and upstream plugs don't get in the way. But the best feature is the seventh port, on the face of the housing, which is great for frequently accessed flash drives.
On the down side, not so much. The power light is an intense blue LED that lights up my workspace when the lights are off. There are additional less-spectacular green LEDs for each of the downstream ports, but to my dismay, they are not activity indicators but power overload indicators, so they don't normally light up at all.
On the whole, I am very satisfied with this unit. It's a "keeper". CyberPower High-Speed 7-Port USB Hub
[After over 2 and one-half years of service from this hub, I'm raising my rating to 5 stars. Below is my review from January 2008 followed by my revaluation from Sept. 2010.]
I realized I needed a 7-port hub and checked out the D-Link, Kensington, Belkin--the usual suspects. Then I chanced upon this unlikely contender, looking more like a jukebox in Amazon's picture than a hub. I was intrigued by the off-beat design and noticed that the price was competitive (though a couple of the others are presently offering rebates, a free flylight, and other sweeteners). Now that I'm looking at the CyberPower USB port "in person," I can provide a few initial impressions:
1. It's a lot smaller than the picture might imply. Compactness is nice, but you also want a hub that will stay put and that allows sufficient space between adjacent plugs.
2. Although the hub is designed for either vertical or horizontal use, the added and welcome weight of the detachable base makes vertical use the more sensible option. Otherwise, you've got a lightweight (and fairly generic) loaded-up plug which could easily move around, dislodging the USB mini-plug (a necessary evil except for small cameras) at one end of every USB 2.0 cable.
3. It seems to handle my equipment off of the USB power supplied by the computer, but I still breathe easier using the included AC power adapter. (To the manufacturer's credit, it's one of the slimmer, lighter wall-warts that I've seen.)
4. The flash drive mount is practical (but not unique). Now I can finally use that old Sandisk thumb drive that formerly was taking up the space of two USB ports.
5. The individual port lights are on all the time and, unlike most hubs, are not indicative of the presence or absence of a USB device.
In conclusion, it's a reliable performer and a convenient as well as eye-catching device--providing you go for the vertical look. If I were to suggest one design improvement, it would be to "fatten up" the tower so that it would be wide enough to permit horizontal insertion of USB devices with the hub in vertical position. Doing so would assure unforced accommodation of all your USB plugs, even the most space-devouring ones. Biggest "gripe": the vertical design is not real stable. The hub is easily dislodged from the base and bounces around quite a bit. If I had to do it over, I'd look at the heavy, dome-shaped Kensington.
[Revaluation after almost 3 years: I tried the Kensington. It was no more stable but less reliable. So I returned to the CyberPower, but without the base or vertical position. I velcroed its back side to the wooden surface behind my desktop machine, with printer and two 500GB storage drives inputted to the rear, one USB cable from the front side to the USB of my iMac, and a flash drive connected to the top side of the hub. Absolutely no problems. This item continues to rise in both popularity and price because it's so good. Should it ever fail, I doubt there's any other hub available that could surpass it. Forget the "cuteness" factor; this thing is all business.]
I was having issues with my (non-powered) USB hub sucking too much energy off my laptop. This puppy solved those problems, which has me VERY happy. It was easy to set up, the plugs are arranged nicely, and I like how it's set up for both vertical and horizontal usage. It does have some glow at night, but it's nothing that bothers me at all.
Highly recommended. - Powered Usb Hub - Usb Hub - 7 Port Usb Hub - Usb 2'
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